Depending on the perspective, the outside linebacker position is either the newest or most veteran spot on the UTEP football team.

On the one hand, there isn't a player on the roster who has played a significant down at outside linebacker. In some senses, it's a new position as the Miners switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4.

So what UTEP has there is Nick Usher, who will be a fourth-year starter, and Silas Firstley, a key backup the past three years. The top No. 2 is Lawrence Montegut, who emerged as a force at the end of last season, and at some point the team expects to get back Luke Elsner, another player with big-time experience.

What those four have in common is that all of their playing time is at defensive end in the old 4-3, and all have body types that more commonly suggest linebacker than end.

A common refrain around UTEP since coordinator Tom Mason was brought in to rework the defense is that their athletes are more suited the 3-4, and that will be put to the test at the position of the position switch.

"Nick Usher is tailor-made to be an outside linebacker in a 3-4," coach Sean Kugler said. "He fits the mold we are looking for at that position. So do Silas Firstley and Lawrence Montegut. And we have young guys, Dylan Parsee and Jayson Van Hook. Nick Usher was undersized at end, now he's got great size for an outside linebacker. This better fits our personnel."

There is still a learning curve, as while there are some similarities between ends in the old defense and outside linebackers in the new one, it is fundamentally a new position.

"The reads are different, the eyes are different, there are a lot of different coverages," Mason said. "Before they were just rushing the passer, now they play some zone, they play some man. But these are the kinds of kids I always recruited at outside linebacker: 6-2, 6-3, 240 to 255 pounds."

They like the change and the opportunity to lock up with a back or a tight end close to their size instead of a lineman 60 pounds heavier than them.

"I'm happy I've moved to linebacker, it's the best for my body type," said Usher, who is 6-3, 240 pounds. "This is best for us. There are a lot of things I need to work on but I'll get it done. I run in space more, play in space. That's the biggest difference and I like doing it."

"This is very different," Firstley said. "Before I was mostly rushing the passer, now I get in coverage more, which is what I like. I'm very excited, I'd been wanting to play linebacker because of my body type."

He had to make that body type. After switching from end he dropped 20 pounds to get to 245.

Montegut is the smallest of that group at 230 pounds, but that is no longer dramatically undersized like he was at end.

"This is really different, a lot of coverage in open space instead of putting a hand on the ground and rushing," said Montegut, who had two sacks late last season when he worked his way into the end rotation. "This feels a lot more natural for me, being fluent in going out in space."

It's a new place for UTEP's new outside linebackers, but by all accounts a more natural one.